How to Use Federated Search
This document explains how to query your current cluster and how to perform federated searches across one or more different clusters in a supercluster setup.
Availability
This feature is available in Enterprise Edition. Not available in Open Source and Cloud.
How to query your current cluster in a supercluster
Query your current cluster when you know the data is in your cluster or when you need the fastest query performance.
What you need to know:
- This is not federated search
- You are querying the current cluster.
- No cross-cluster communication occurs.
- Results will include data from the current cluster only.
**Steps:** 
- Navigate to the Logs page.
- Enter your query in the SQL Query Editor.
- Select a time range.
- Select one specific cluster from the Region dropdown.
- Select Run query.
For detailed explanation, see Normal cluster query execution in the Federated Search Architecture page.
Result
Data from the selected cluster only.
How to query one or more different clusters in a supercluster
Use federated search when you need data from multiple clusters.
What you need to know
- Multiple clusters will process your query simultaneously.
- Results will combine data from all selected clusters.
Steps
- Navigate to the Logs page.
- Enter your query in the SQL Query Editor.
- Select a time range.
- Leave the Region dropdown unselected, or select multiple clusters.
- Select Run query.
For detailed explanation, see Federated search for one different cluster and Federated search for multiple clusters in the Federated search architecture page.
Result
Combined data from all selected clusters.
Region selection reference
Use this quick reference to understand how region selection affects query execution:
| Region/Cluster Selection | Behavior | Query Type | Communication |
|---|---|---|---|
| None selected | Queries all clusters | Federated search | Cross-cluster via gRPC |
| Your current cluster selected | Queries only your current cluster | Normal cluster query (NOT federated) | Internal only, no cross-cluster |
| One different cluster selected (same region) | Queries only that cluster | Federated search | Cross-cluster via gRPC |
| One different cluster selected (different region) | Queries only that cluster | Federated search | Cross-cluster via gRPC |
| Multiple clusters selected | Queries all selected clusters | Federated search | Cross-cluster via gRPC |
Next step
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